Playing with Terror: How to Stop Qatar's Support
for Hamas
By Prof. Joshua Teitelbaum
BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 266, August 25, 2014
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Qatar has become the leading backer of Hamas
terrorism, and the country’s wings need to be clipped. Cancellation of the
plan to hold the FIFA 2022 World Cup in Qatar would be a useful and
important first step.
Qatar: From Gulf Backwater to World Cup Host Nation
Fifteen years ago very few people had ever heard of Qatar. A Persian Gulf
backwater, it had little influence. Today it is the richest per capita country in
the world, although that wealth is enjoyed only by 250,000 of its 1.8 million
residents who actually hold Qatari citizenship.
But a combination of a new and ambitious emir, huge revenues from natural
gas (it has the world’s largest reserves, after Russia and Iran), and that emir’s
obsessive-compulsive need to put Qatar on the map – have caused it to
embark on an erratic political path. This path has taken Doha from being one
of the few Arab states to have diplomatic relations with Israel to being the
main backer of Israel’s implacable Palestinian foe, Hamas.
Qatar has landed a branch of the prestigious Georgetown University, and it
hosts the Doha Forum, a “world class event” [Qatar’s words] of international
glitterati. In 1996 it founded Al-Jazeera Satellite Channel, which angered
every Arab government -- except that in Doha. The government-owned Qatar
Foundation is the main sponsor of the Barcelona Football Club – arguably the
most famous soccer team in the world.
But from the perspective of the former Emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, and
his wife, fashion icon Sheikha Moza bint Nasir al-Misnad, his crowning
achievement, as well as a testimony to the influence of money, greed, and
graft, was winning a coveted prize: the hosting the FIFA Soccer World Cup in
2022. (In 2013 Hamad abdicated the throne in favor of the son he shares with
Moza, Tamim.)
Indeed, who in his right mind would agree to soccer matches in July in Qatar
—where the average temperature is 105 degrees Fahrenheit (41 degrees
Celsius) —without an impressive douceur? Indeed, Qatar’s labor practices
while building the World Cup infrastructure have led to several deaths of
foreign workers, and have come under withering criticism from human rights
groups. And why should Qatar be rewarded with the World Cup when it
supports Hamas, an internationally recognized terrorist organization?
Supporting Hamas Terror
Qatar has contributed to Hamas’ emergence as a major contender to the
Palestinian Authority. Qatar hosted Hamas leader Khalid Mash’al, first in
1999 when he was expelled from Jordan, and then again from 2012, when he
left Syria. Qatar invited him to attend the 2009 Arab Summit in Doha, where
he was seated next to Arab leaders, to the chagrin of the PA. In February 2012
it mediated a Fatah-Hamas reconciliation agreement; in July it began
delivering fuel to Gaza via Israel; and in October Emir Hamad visited Gaza,
where he announced a $400m. aid program to the Islamist organization.
“Today you are big guest, great guest, declaring officially the breaking of the
political economic siege that was imposed on Gaza,” gushed Ismail Haniya,
the Hamas prime minister. The PA felt jilted. “We call on the Qatari prince or
his representative to visit the West Bank too!” screamed a headline in the
leading West Bank newspaper, al-Quds. The delivery of fuel and building
materials, including cement, came via Israel, as did Qatari officials and others
involved in the reconstruction. The Qataris committed to purchasing much of
the material in Israel. (For its part, Israel may have expected Qatar to renew
diplomatic relations, broken in 2009.)
While Qatari officials say that Doha is helping the Palestinian people, not
Hamas, Israeli officials are clear on this point: Doha is aiding and abetting
Hamas, and Hamas is listed by the United States and others as a terrorist
organization. The “terror tunnels were funded by Qatari money, ”noted Israel’s
UN ambassador, Ron Prosor. Cloud technology based in Qatar guides Hamas
rocket launches at Israel, and Qatar trained Hamas terrorists to manage its
terror tunnel system, according to an Israeli cyber-security expert. The
construction of these tunnels “under civilian populated areas and protected
sites like hospitals, across borders, and/or with the intention of maiming
civilians must be regarded as a violation of international law” and a war
crime.
Blood Money: Qatar and the World Cup
Qatar’ s support for terrorism should be enough to deny it the World Cup
show; but what many do not know is that the World Cup tournament landed
in Qatar due to corruption and graft.
The evidence points to Qatar’s bribing of FIFA officials to receive the right to
host the prestigious tournament. A Sunday Times investigation, based on a
huge number of emails, reported that the decision to award the World Cup to
Qatar had been influenced by payments made by former FIFA vice-president,
Muhammad bin Hammam, a Qatari national. Hammam has already been
removed from his position for buying votes in his campaign to become FIFA
president. Hammam was allegedly in contact with the Qatar bid committee
and hosted a number of lavish functions where he handed out cash gifts with
the aim of securing the bid for Qatar. Qatar’s Shaykh Muhammad bin Hamad
A Thani, a brother of the current emir and chair of the Qatari bid committee,
described Hammam as the bid’s biggest asset. FIFA president Sepp Blatter has
already said that it was a mistake to choose Qatar.
The Qatari World Cup committee is currently under investigation by FIFA
ethics investigator Michael Garcia, but Doha has not cooperated, refusing to
supply details of its budget and how it was spent. Results of the investigation
are expected in September.
Many laborers have actually died during construction, as Qatar struggles
with a compressed time schedule to build an infrastructure that can support
soccer events in the blistering summer heat. According to Human Rights
Watch, Qatar’s labor system facilitates trafficking and forced labor. Between
June 4 and August 8, 2014, 44 Nepalese workers perished from cardiac arrest
and workplace accidents.
The Qatari terrorist-soccer nexus came into play when Qatar’s Aspire
Academy, a sports promoting organization that played a role in the Qatari
bid, hosted Saudi sheikh Muhammad al-Arifi, who has been banned from the
UK for urging young Britons to joint the jihad in Syria. On the same July
occasion, Aspire Academy also hosted Wajdi Ghunaym, an Egyptian-Qatari
preacher who was a fundraiser for Hamas. In 2009 he was banned from Britain
for “engaging in unacceptable behaviour by seeking to foment, justify or
glory terrorist violence in furtherance of particular beliefs and to provoke
others to commit terrorist acts.”
Taking the World Cup away from Qatar would send a strong signal to other
countries that corruption and support of terrorism do not pay. It would be a
setback to Qatar internationally. And it would weaken Qatar’s ability to stand
up to Saudi Arabia, a loyal American ally, which, along with Israel, has stood
at the forefront of countering Iranian nuclear ambitions.
Through its money and mediating of conflicts, Qatar seeks a place on the
world stage. Its wings need clipping. Recently US courts have agreed to hear
a case against the Arab Bank for knowingly routing funds to Hamas
operatives. Filed under the Antiterrorism Act of 1990, this is the first such case
ever to go to trial in the US. Investigators may yet find that aspects of Qatari
financing of terrorism come under the Antiterrorism Act.
But right now, a strong signal need to be sent to immediately. The world
community should pressure FIFA to remove the 2022 Soccer World Cup from
Qatar, or boycott the event. It’s the right thing to do.
Prof. Joshua Teitelbaum, a senior research associate at the Begin-Sadat Center for
Strategic Studies, is a professor of Middle Eastern studies at Bar-Ilan University, and
a visiting fellow and contributor to the Task Force on Islamism and International
Order at Stanford’s Hoover Institution. He is an expert on the Gulf states,
particularly Saudi Arabia.